Although Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas is an obvious trade candidate, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports hears (video link) that he’s unlikely to bring back much in a deal at his current pace. As Rosenthal points out, Moustakas’ offensive output has faded as the season has progressed, and the lefty-swinger has struggled all year against same-handed pitchers, who have limited him to a .224/.253/.353 line. He’s also due around $3MM after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. All of those factors figure to harm Moustakas’ value, Rosenthal posits. After hitting .272/.314/.521 with 38 home runs in 598 plate appearances last year, Moustakas failed to generate much interest in free agency, leading him to re-sign with the Royals for a $6.5MM guarantee in early March. Three months later, he’s slashing an unremarkable .259/.314/.474 with 13 HRs through 296 trips to the plate.
More from the league’s Central divisions…
- The Indians are awaiting word on right-hander Carlos Carrasco, who departed his start Saturday after a 99.6 mph line drive off the bat of the Twins’ Joe Mauer struck him in the pitching elbow. Carrasco left after 1 1/3 innings with what the team called a forearm contusion, though manager Terry Francona said afterward (via Joe Noga of cleveland.com) that he’s undergoing tests on his elbow to rule out further damage. “When you look inside a pitcher’s elbow, there’s a lot going on,” Francona said. “Right now, they said it was a contusion. The hope is that’s all it is. We’ll know more by late tonight.” Saturday continued a somewhat down year for Carrasco, who allowed four earned runs to lift his ERA to 4.24 (compared to 3.29 last season), though his secondary numbers paint a far more hopeful picture.
- Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong is on track to come off the disabled list in early July, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com reports. DeJong, out since suffering a fractured left hand May 17, has been cleared to resume hitting and is aiming to take batting practice during the upcoming week. Meanwhile, injured reliever Dominic Leone has “turned the corner from uncertainty to progressing in the right direction,” according to general manager Michael Girsch (via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Leone now looks likely to return this year, which wasn’t the case before, Goold notes. A nerve issue in Leone’s right biceps has kept him on the shelf since May 5.
- The Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus announced that it has placed center fielder Bradley Zimmer on the DL, retroactive to June 14, with right shoulder discomfort. The injury continues a Murphy’s Law 2018 for Zimmer, who was on the major league DL earlier this season with a rib contusion and then was demoted to Triple-A on June 5 after limping to a .226/.281/.330 line in 114 PAs. He also hasn’t posed a threat in the minors this year, albeit over a mere 28 PAs, with a .148/.179/.259 line and 11 strikeouts against one walk.
I would still say a .788 OPS by Moose is still pretty decent. Maybe not anything to bring back a top 10 organizational prospect but still can bring a couple wild cards back with high ceilings. I know the Angels would most likely be interest come the trade deadline, with all of their injuries and lack of impact by Kinsler and Cozart
He’s hitting .212/.297/.363 over his last 30 games. He will fetch something if there’s a need, but eh.
Could see Moose sent over to San Diego. As of right now Christian Villanueva only hits LHP, something Moose struggles to do. That could be a nice little platoon down the stretch if the Padres continue to flirt around .500
Not to mention, Hosmer will probably be cheerleading A.J. Preller to take a look at that option as we get closer to July 31st.
Why would the rebuilding Padres want to trade for Mike Moustakas the pending free agent!?!?!?!?!?
Yeah, Villanueva isn’t any good but Moustakas isn’t a solution. He’s a free agent after this season and he’s not like some young guy the Padres can build around. I doubt The Padres move anyone this summer except Galvis and Hand, probably one of Yates or Stammen.
And Ross
Yeah, they could get something for Ross. He hasn’t pitched too badly.
A cheeseburger-no fries
This is the weird thing: Moose isn’t an upgrade over anyone on a contender, so while he is trade bait, the odds of anyone actually wanting to pick him over say, Jed Lowrie are not good.
Don’t write off his first stretch of games. There’s peaks and valleys in players seasons. He could easily slash 280/330/520 in his next 30 games. He’s not going to command much as a half season rental but he has value. Have to remember what kind of protection he has around him as well. Not a ton of killers in that KC lineup.
Lineup protection isn’t exactly a thing.
The only place where lineup “protection” is any sort of thing is #8 hitters in the NL tend to have a slightly higher walk rate than expected. Other than that it’s pretty much a myth.
Sure Dave. Everything is a myth.
Like the lead-off batter getting better pitches to hit. Which is why slumping hitters being pitched around are moved to hit #1, and suddenly their BA’s go up.
#1-2 batters get far better pitches to hit then they get hitting 7-8….because of the caliber if those hitting behind them. It’s the way pitchers work hitters. No one wants to miss hitting the corner and putting a batter on when the next 2 or 3 batters can hit him in (walks lead to runs, no?…and a walk is not making a dreaded out).
Here is a real myth for you – if you think major league pitchers – that now have to throw themselves into Tommy John surgery in order to create evermore movement on their pitches – can constantly throw their multiple pitches into a 8 inch square as they cross the plate, then you need to talk to some major league pitchers and/or pitching coaches.
If protection is a real thing why is Moose only walking in 7% of his PA’s?
I guarantee I have thrown more competitive pitches at every amateur level of baseball than you have. But this is about lineup protection, and there’s just no evidence it is a thing. Pitchers pitch to the guy at the plate – we have literally a century of actual data for this. The only exception, as I noted is that in the NL the #8 hitter tends to have a slightly higher OBP because of being worked around to get to the pitcher. This effect is magnified with two out.
This thing about “slumping hitters being moved up in the lineup to leadooff” doesn’t even make sense by old-school baseball standards. Slumping hitterss are almost lways moved down in the lineup, not up. But in the end, what thousands and thousands of studies have shown over and over again is that lineup construction is really not terribly important, except that you should bat your best hitter second and your better hitters higher in the lineup simply so they have more chances in the course of a season to bat.
And your argument actually seems contradictory to me – #1 and 2 hitters get better pitches to hit? By that logic, # 1 and two hitters would make more outs, right? Like, they would be the worst hitters on the team, right? Because pitchers are bearing down extra hard to get them out so they can ease up for the 3-4-5 hitters? I guess I don’t understand your argument. It’s contradictory.
Carrington, there has been a pretty decent amount of research into “lineup protection”, and it shows that it is a myth – bar the 8/9 NL issue.
Anecdotal theories that Managers used to have, isn’t evidence. Just because some people used to think something was real, doesn’t make it real. After all, we have religion and flat earth theories.
Why don’t you send him the press clippings then…
“Carrington, there has been a pretty decent amount of research into “lineup protection”, and it shows that it is a myth – bar the 8/9 NL issue.
Anecdotal theories that Managers used to have, isn’t evidence. Just because some people used to think something was real, doesn’t make it real. After all, we have religion and flat earth theories.”
——-
Here is what is real…….
o Batters have been K’ing at an evermore outrageous pace for the past 15-20 years.
o 26% of pitchers in MLB have had Tommy John surgery.
o Even with gains in sports medicine and nutrition, more players are out injured then ever before.
o BA’s and % of batters putting balls in play continue to go down.
o Batters facing a shift are being told to use an uppercut swing to hit the ball over everyone’s head instead of learning to hit the ball into the open gaps. The percentage of hitting a ball over everyone’s head is far lower then hitting into wide open gaps.
o As noted in a recent article in which ESPN interviewed managers, they seldom put on the hit-and-run because so few of their batters can make contact. Stolen bases are pretty much out. So all they do is change pitchers – and the front office looking at stats tells them which pitcher to bring in depending on the inning and game situation. Managers are mostly baby sitters.
o Games take far too much time, and are boring to watch. However, the sport is attractive to gamblers and fantasy league players…..who look at box scores.
o The professional sport continues to head in the wrong direction – and franchise owners know it. The product becomes less attractive to the consumer each year.
If you find baseball games boring you shouldn’t watch them, go outside and tend your garden or something. Read a book.
Batting order should only ever be made based on OBP over a players last 100 PA’s. Guys who get on base more will get more PA’s and will therefore be up later in close or low scoring games, thereby increasing chances for a late rally. How every manager in MLB doesn’t see this is infuriating. No one is stealing bases anymore, you don’t need to go “fast guy-obp guy-power guy” as your 1-2-3 hitters anymore, Kris Bryant hits leadoff now, who cares about hitter types, OBP is all that matters. Not making an out is all that matters.
Did you, Cam, just say religion is something “some people used to think…was real (but that) doesn’t make it real. Christianity is real, there is evidence. Ever hear of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Maybe you should check it out before you get hit by a line drive to the head & end up in a hell of a mess.
I think Dayton more would be pretty happy with a high ceiling lottery ticket for Moustakas. He got one of those for Jon Jay and can probably expect about the same for Moustakas. The Royals desperately need more talent in the minor leagues.
Agreed, that’s about all he can get for him, bigger question is: who is Moustakas a 3B upgrade for? Where does he even fit? The Giants?
A “Murphy’s Law 2018” for Bradley Zimmer is actually a great way to describe it. If you had told me that Greg Allen would have passed him on the depth chart (even only temporarily), I would have been shocked.
Whining battery chucking Giants fans always crack me up.
“Battery chucking”? You mean Giants fans throw up pitcher-and-catcher combos?
If the implication is that other teams are going to try to steal Moose from KC which many on here substantiate, then KC needs to sign him long term so he can morph into a DH and be a legacy player for that franchise like Brett, White, Otis, McRae, etc. Like Salvy, he means more to the Royals than to other teams & if they can’t bring back what they (Dayton Moore & crew) deem an equitable return, just trade/DFA elsewhere & build around both players who still are in their 20’s! There’s no need to move them for nothing or very little coming back if in fact that’s the consensus perspective and or reality…
Jed Lowrie is leapfrogging over Moose now he’s back playing 3B in place of the injured Chapman. Better hitter and defender at all INF spots having a much better year although he’s slumped heavily in the last month. Off versatility alone I’m thinking he might get a top 10-15ish org prospect or two.